Supertouch buddy AARON ROSE opened the doors to a little show he curated at the venerable CIRCLECULTURE GALLERY in Berlin this past Saturday, titled simply “McGee, Templeton, Pettibon.” Bringing “Zee Germans” a healthy dose of American street culture, the show aptly surveyed the recent work of all three of these iconic artists (all of whom also took part in Rose’s previous “Beautiful Losers” exhibitions), and included photographs and paintings by Barry McGee and Ed Templeton and a nice display of recent ink drawings by elder statesman Raymond Pettibon alongside a large array of neatly framed examples of his ultra-seminal Black Flag photocopied gig flyers (whose ever-elusive matching original artworks remain the ultimate holy grail for Pettibon collectors). HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend in NYC saw the return of one of the city’s most elusive artists to the formal gallery scene when Supertouch’s own PHIL FROST premiered his new solo show “Paperweight” at JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY. Creating over 65 works on paper—the majority of which clocked in at a comfy and affordable 22″ x 30″—the show was an explosion of color (and white out) from the so-called “street artist”, who, despite gaining notoriety for first plying his trade on city walls, has strived to elude the misnomer in his professional career. A show of this kind has never before been mounted for Phil, whose imagery usually begins on canvases before spilling over onto all matter of physical ephemera, from baseball bats and footballs, to old mattresses, glass bottles, BMX bikes, and even suitcases, and proved to be an amazing spectacle in its well contained uniformity. Of course, Frost’s fanbase was out in numbers to greet their art hero and art collector and onetime funnyman MIKE MEYERS even patiently waited his turn in line for a photo with Philly Phil followed by chants of “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy,” obviously not in reference to his performance in “The Love Guru.” HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

It was only a matter of time, Supertouch’s own SHEPARD FAIREY’s iconic OBAMA campaign artwork finally made its way to SOUTH PARK last nite where the Big O received the typical Matt & Tre makeover on the season’s latest episode. Watch it HERE…

Supertouch buddy JR continues his global street art installation, “28MM: WOMEN” campaign with a new residency in Delhi, India. He checks in with us from the ancient city this week with a sneek peek at his latest handiwork. Fresh off an epic run of installations in Cambodia and Kenya, JR will no doubt have claimed all of Delhi as his personal outdoor art gallery by the time this new stage of his grand global plan is complete. Stay tuned to ST for more updates from the road…

BOSTON VANDALISM CHARGES STIR DEBATE ON ART’S PLACE

By Abby Goodnough, NYTimes

BOSTON — This may be the only place in America where Shepard Fairey, the street artist whose omnipresent portrait of Barack Obama has become a touchstone, is not fully feeling the love.

Mr. Fairey’s court appearances came a month after he was arrested on Feb. 6 as he arrived at the opening-night party for his retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art. His cab was approaching the museum when the police stopped it, handcuffed him and took him to jail overnight. Click HERE to continue reading…

Amid the current wave of doom and gloom that washed over this year’s annual ARMORY art expo in NYC last week, OG Manhattan art star KENNY SCHARF reminded everyone that the art world was once a fun place to be with his one man “Scharfland” show at PAUL KASMIN’s booth. Consisting of a wide array of beautiful new paintings, a bronze cat sculpture, an outdoor installation of live spray paintings, and even a golf kart transformed into one of Sharf’s characters, Kenny brought back the spirit of the days when he and friends like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol were literally writing the rules of the art world as they went along. Scharf is yet another artist participating in the “Stages” charity art show to benefit LANCE ARMSTRONG’s anti-cancer LIVESTRONG foundation during his run in this year’s Tour de France. Keep an eye on ST for more details coming soon. Meanwhile, HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

A wise man once said “writing about art is like dancing about architecture,” but in a world where oceans of self-aggrandizing “artspeak” usually says much about an author’s ego and little to nothing about artwork itself, Supertouch’s own resident legendary art writer CARLO McCORMICK is the exception to the rule. This month finds him penning an incredibly astute piece on SHEPARD FAIREY for ART IN AMERICA from the rarified perspective of a genuinely street-level art world insider more at home on the Bowery than in Chelsea. At a time when the slow-moving mainstream art world and its legion of stiff-jointed scribes are playing years of painful catch-up on the “street art” game, this is a must-read:

SHEPARD FAIREY
By Carlo McCormick | Art in America

In a thank-you note written by Barack Obama to street artist Shepard Fairey for the pictorial provocateur’s singular contribution to branding his campaign for the presidency, the then senator wrote: “The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe that they can help change the status-quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign.”

High praise indeed from such a highly regarded public figure. But what it ultimately says—that there is a cultural equivalence between fine art shown in established venues and artistic expressions put up illegally on private or government property—represents a tacit sanction of street art from the leader of the free world that is a dramatic shift in the perceived role of art as a radical tool of social intervention.

Emblazoned in our collective mind’s eye as a defining icon of optimism and change, Fairey’s Obama Hope poster, certainly one of his most endearing and personable images, is such a signature work that the original collage was recently acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and related images graced the covers of Time and Esquire. It is, however, not a fleeting pop-culture sensation but simply the latest crossover hit in a long line of underground classics.

Fairey has made such an indelible mark on our visual landscape that it is difficult to avoid the platitudes we might otherwise eschew in the discourse of contemporary art. As he comes under greater scrutiny from the art establishment with a major retrospective of his work, now on view at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, it is worth noting that his renown has grown organically from the streets and a global youth culture that the mainstream art world has only a vague grasp of. Click HERE to continue reading…

In town for the opening of his eponymous solo show at MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY, Japan’s YOSHITOMO NARA just couldn’t help himself in the Subway at Union Station when the graffiti urge overtook him. Unfortunately, New York’s “Finest” don’t exactly see drawings as “art” when they’re on walls instead of paper and the delicate art star spent two days in the slammer. Ouch:

POP ARTIST YOSHITOMO NARA ARRESTED FOR GRAFFITI IN NEW YORK
March 10, Japan Today

Yoshitomo Nara, a contemporary Japanese pop artist known for sculptures and paintings of doe-eyed figures, was arrested in late February for tagging graffiti in the Union Square subway station, a New York Police Department official said Monday.

Nara was arrested at 3:10 a.m. on Feb 27 and charged with criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments, making graffiti and resisting arrest, detective Martin Speechley told Kyodo News in a phone interview. An official at a New York art gallery where Nara’s exhibits are currently on display said the artist has already been released.

Nara, 49, who lives and works in Tochigi Prefecture, was in New York for a solo exhibition of his work at the Marianne Boesky Gallery that runs Feb 28 through March 28. The online edition of Art in America magazine said Nara was caught tagging a graffiti portrait of two Japanese friends in the subway station and he was optimistic about his two days in lockup.

It was ‘‘a nice experience in my life,’’ the artist was quoted as saying. He said the environment in which he found himself was like something in the movies. Nara emerged on the art scene during Japan’s pop art movement in the 1990s and has held solo exhibitions worldwide. His works are on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Click HERE to read more…